1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of metal salvage. In particular, the invention relates to the salvage of metal from cans originally manufactured to contain beverages. Most specifically, the invention, in the embodiment disclosed, relates to the salvage of aluminum from aluminum beverage containers by reducing the amount of storage space necessary to store such containers until a sufficient number is accumulated to bring to a salvage depot.
2. Prior Art
During the second World War, we were a conservation minded nation. The prosperity and technological advances achieved after that war have helped turn us into a wasteful and waste filled nation. The realization, however, has finally come to many that such wasteful existence cannot endure. People are demanding that such waste shall cease. More and more we see or hear of goods being made from recycled paper, reprocessed wool, recycled metals, etc.
One consumer product which is readily recycleable is the aluminum can in which beverages are sold. So many people have turned to the salvage of aluminum cans that a ready market exists for such material today. To discourage persons from retaining and salvaging such cans is the storage problem that exists. Thirty empty cans can fill an ordinary paper grocery bag to overflowing. Since, in storing cans, the consumer is storing a more significant volume of air than of aluminum, the can rapidly consume storage space and threaten to overflow the household.
To conserve storage space, those skilled in the art have developed means for flattening the cans. Couty et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,066,600 issued Dec. 4, 1962, discloses means for flattening cans which comprises two synchronized rollers rolling in opposite directions to draw cans down between the rollers. A depression is cut into the rollers to permit the bottom of a can to be gripped and then bent so as to cause the base of the can to be compressed and allow it to be drawn downward between the two rollers drawing the remainder of the can with it.
Rosenow in U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,351 issued Aug. 6, 1974, uses a similar concept of synchronized rollers for flattening metal cans. However, Rosenow's rollers have substantially square cross-sections with rounded edges. This provides a vise-like action at the flat surfaces of the rollers which flattens and crushes cans entrapped therebetween.
It is quite common to find crushing devices which are provided with a rotary cylinder and a compression wall. The patents to Smorenburg, U.S. Pat. No. 3,0830,153; and to Palmer, U.S. Pat. No. 2,808,776; are illustrative of crushers having a rotary cylinder and a fixed wall compression plate.
The combination of a rotary cylinder and a fixed wall compression plate frequently resulted in material jamming between the roller and the compression plate. To overcome this tendency, those skilled in the prior art resorted to movable compression plates. Generally, these compression plates were spring-loaded so as to retract under high loads which would nominally have resulted in jamming the device. When the potential jamming material has cleared the machine, the spring-loading of the compression plate brings it back to its normal close proximity to the rotating cylinder. Typical of such devices are those by Hughes, U.S. Pat. No. 1,509,730; and Williams, U.S. Pat. No. 973,327.
Malarsky, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,036,517, eliminates the rotary cylinder in favor of a combination of a fixed compression plate and an undulating, curved surface compression plate. Cans are deposited between the two compression plates and work their way down therebetween as the curved compression plate is undulated.
Weber et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,477 combines a rotary cylinder with an undulated compression plate, thus, achieving somewhat greater simplicity than the device of Malarsky.
All of the above note devices are relatively complex. Those which require two synchronized rollers are relatively elaborate in and of themselves and require the use of gearing to obtain the necessary synchronization. It is noted, too, that the rollers of Couty et al. and Rosenow are specially shaped, a factor which detracts from the overall cost effectiveness of the device.
An examination of the prior art indicates that a device which will provide the consumer a simple means for crushing cans within the home environment is highly desired. Further, no simple, relatively inexpensive device for such a purpose is presently known.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a relatively simple and inexpensive device for use in the home for the flattening of cans to conserve storage space consumed by such cans until they are taken to the salvage depot.
It is a particular object of the invention of provide a highly efficient device requiring relatively little energy be expended in flattening aluminum beverage cans.
It is a specific objective of the invention to provide a device which will flatten an aluminum beverage can with little or no distortion of the top and bottom ends of the can thus conserving energy normally expended in other devices to distort such structurally sound elements of the can.